1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique suitably used in the fields of instrumentation and control of various physical quantities such as temperature, pressure, flow rate and rotational speed, or in particular to a technique for providing useful information on instrumentation and control to clients engaged in instrumentation and control of physical quantities.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the conventional temperature control technique by measuring and controlling an object to a predetermined temperature, as proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-268754, for example, the operation history of a sensor is recorded to make it easy to trace the cause of a malfunction which may occur.
To determine a malfunction and the time of occurrence and trace the cause of the malfunction, however, the detection temperature (control amount) of a temperature sensor alone is not sufficient, and the data such as the amount of operation of a temperature controller or the like is required to be accumulated. The problem, however, is that the data such as the operation amount of the temperature controller and the temperature detected by the temperature sensor cannot be easily accumulated by the client, in view of the need of constructing a system using a data logger and an instrumentation software.
In controlling the temperature by the temperature controller, for example, the control parameter such as the PID gain is required to be set by the client using the auto-tuning function or the like incorporated in the temperature controller. Thus, the control parameter cannot necessarily be set in satisfactory manner, and a means is desired by which the proper control parameter can be acquired more easily.
As long as the client can produce a model of an object to be controlled, for example, it is possible to carry out various simulations using the particular model for determining the optimum parameter. The modeling of an object to be controlled, however, requires a special tool and therefore cannot be easily carried out. Therefore, it is desired to easily acquire a model of an object to be controlled.